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Poor rural people manage vast areas of land and forest. They have the potential to be important players in protecting natural resources and providing important environmental services. An IFAD-supported project has helped build momentum and public interest in rewards for environmental services and has developed ways to offer incentives to poor farmers who protect ecosystems at the national level in China, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, the Philippines and Viet Nam.

Animal manure is a source of methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas when released to the atmosphere. But methane can also be captured and used as a source of clean, renewable and affordable energy. An IFAD-supported project in China provided about 30,000 poor households with nearly 23,000 ‘biodigester’ tanks for biogas production. As a result, methane emissions dropped, incomes rose and household sanitation and health improved.

BBC World documentary featuring IFAD-supported project in China

Any project that reduces poverty rates from 90 per cent to 1 per cent sounds too good to be true. Yet that is exactly what happened through an IFAD-funded project in Sichuan, China. Even more encouraging is that it happened under extremely challenging conditions. The outstanding success is the result of good project management and strong governmental support for poverty reduction.

In the Middle Hills district of Nepal, an IFAD-funded project has helped reverse environmental degradation and bring people out of poverty. As a result of the project’s impressive impact, the government adopted a leasehold forest policy in 2002 and integrated the approach in its poverty strategy. Now a new project is building on the success of the first, introducing livestock and microfinance components.

Jordan is a chronically water-scarce country, and less than five per cent of the land is arable. For farmers, little or no rainfall means severely reduced cultivation and production – and increased hunger and poverty. Those who find other ways to supplement their incomes generally earn very little. To address these challenges, an IFAD-supported project provided farmers with technical and financial assistance to promote soil and water conservation and boost agricultural production. It also helped more than 800 women develop small-scale business enterprises to increase family incomes.

Large, well-constructed ‘agro-wells’ are making farming profitable for farmers living in dry areas of Sri Lanka. Farmers in the dry areas of the district of Matale benefited from the Regional Economic Advancement Project (REAP) from 1999 to 2007. REAP was mostly funded by a loan of US$11.7 million from IFAD to the Government of Sri Lanka. The project had a total budget of US$14.5 million, and benefited some 30,000 households. A major activity of REAP’s subcomponent on soil conservation and water management was assistance to the poorest farmers to enable them to construct agro-wells for irrigation purposes. This activity was started in 2001.

Northern Bangladesh is home to some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable rural people. The area, like the rest of the country, is frequently hit by floods and cyclones. Its smallholder farmers are trapped in poverty, largely excluded from borrowing and knowledge of farming practices that could help improve their lives and protect them from potential risks. An IFAD-supported project in the north-west and north-central regions of the country has introduced financial services customized to the specific needs of poor farming communities. As a result, incomes are improving and rural people are beginning to lift themselves out of poverty.

Widespread environmental degradation in the north-eastern region of India is aggravating poverty and food security, and forcing rural people to exploit dwindling resources to meet subsistence requirements. An IFAD-supported project has introduced a new model for sustainable management of the resource base. Now communities care for the environment, and have learned to make use of natural resources to improve livelihoods and ensure that the land will continue to provide for future generations.

Two years ago, in 2005, Giang Thi Hoa, 41, and her husband, Li Mi Na, 54, decided to leave their home in the mountains of Meo Vac district, Viet Nam, in search of a better life for themselves and their four children. In the mountains, the family lived in extreme poverty

A microcredit loan can make all the difference in transforming a failing small business into a flourishing one. A precarious enterprise run by a widowed mother of three in a remote, post-conflict community of Armenia has become a financially viable business, thanks to a microcredit loan provided through an IFAD-supported project. The business has also stimulated the local economy, providing small-scale dairy farmers with added income.

An IFAD-funded project in the Dir district has pioneered a new approach to rural financing that conforms to Islamic regulations. In its initial phase it has helped women set up micro-enterprises. In just nine years it has demonstrated how economic and social empowerment can transform women’s status and self-esteem. 

The People’s Republic of China is the third-largest country in the world and home to more than 1.2 billion people. It is a vast collage of sea-coast, fertile plains and valleys, rugged mountains and arid wind-swept deserts. Indeed, China’s vastness and diversity are in many ways an embodiment of the problems and challenges facing small farmers and pastoralists throughout the developing world.

Nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, 100 kilometers from Kathmandu, the Nepalese village of Kusha Devi is shaping its own future and Ram Prasad Bajgain is one of the driving forces.

During the day eight-year-old Cheang Pheap is a happy, playful child who goes to school in the afternoons. He is in the first grade at his local primary school and, from his seat in the third row from the front of the classroom, he can read the blackboard clearly.

Fundamentals like reducing malnutrition, providing clean water and improving sanitation lay at the heart of Cambodia's Seth Koma (child rights) programme.

Every week a group of rural woman of the ethnic Yao minority in south China meet to discuss their plans for household development. They are supported by a microcredit project that helps China's most vulnerable groups of women and children.

Dewi and her younger sister, Yani, rehearse a play in the backroom of a nondescript house in Surakarta, a city of 1 million inhabitants located in Central Java, Indonesia. The play, Eka, is about a girl abducted and sold into the sex trade.

“Assalamu'alaikum, in the name of God most gracious and most merciful, this is Nila Megasari and you are listening to 97 FM, MBS radio. Here are today's stories about the adventures of the pink elephant and his friends the cats, for the students at Kalisari elementary school.”

The mothers of Banjar Sari in Indonesia beam with pride as they watch their children performing in the primary school play. But the mothers are more than entertained by the young actors, they are also learning valuable lessons about the importance of boiling water, washing their hands before preparing food or eating and disposing of refuse properly.

Phanya has been encouraged by her teachers to think big for the future. “I love going to school,” says 11-year-old Phanya. “I don’t want to get married. I want to study for many years, go to university and then work in an office – maybe become a doctor.”

In the village of Ban Nayavai, in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Teng, now 20, left school two years ago and, as an unmarried and unemployed young woman, stayed at home to help her family

When Luang Pi Daeng, a little boy in Sisaket Province of north-east Thailand, lost his mother and found himself alone in the world, he did what many destitute Thais do. He sought shelter at Wat Hua Rin, a Buddhist temple in his region.

Like many East Timorese children living in remote areas, Rosa's life is difficult. Constantly moving to escape violence and abuse, she has struggled to find a peaceful environment amongst adults who respect and care for her.

Each winter, a community of Kuchis, or nomadic farmers, return from their summer grazing grounds to spend three months wintering in the village of Namokab.

Raweya, a 15-year-old girl from a destitute rural area in Egypt, has a dream. Some day she will be a doctor. But obstacles loom large. Poverty, as overwhelming as it can be, is just one among many.

“We met Eti's parents,” her friend Mili later recalled. “And we explained to them that she was not yet fully grown up and if a girl under 18 is married she runs a greater risk of death due to pregnancy. We also explained that it is a punishable offence to marry off a young girl without her consent. And if they, as educated parents, didn't understand these matters, who else would?”  

Girls have not traditionally been encouraged to go to school in the south Asian nation of Bhutan. So it takes tremendous determination to achieve what Deki, 22, has. She is the first woman in her village to have completed her education and has become a primary school teacher.

In Sitamarhi District, where Lalita lives, almost two-thirds of the population is living below the poverty line. Female literacy and girls' education have never been a high priority in the district. About 26 per cent of female residents are literate, which is only about half the corresponding percentage for males in the district; it is also far below the state and national level.

Narayni, Rasila, Shambhu, Mira and Lakshmi were taught to service and repair the India Mark II, an Indian-made handpump designed especially for the water challenges of the country. They check each pump every two weeks. Dressed in grey uniforms covering their brightly coloured saris, the women can be seen trudging through fields and brush to repair broken machinery. The team is called upon at least five or six times a month to get a pump up and running. They are paid a small salary for their efforts, adding up to about two full workdays a week.

“People used to laugh at us in the beginning,” said Shambhu. “They didn't think we could do what they said was a man's job.”

Sona Sada walks one hour to get to the government school. The 15-year-old gladly makes the long trek from her village in Dumraha, Nepal. She is a Mushahar , a member of the landless tribe considered ‘untouchable’ in her country. She never dreamed that she would go to school. Her family is poor, and like most Mushahars , she seemed destined to remain illiterate.

Once a month, a pilgrimage shelter beside the famous Machhendranath temple in Bungamati – a small town located in the Kathmandu Valley – is transformed into a bustling outreach clinic.

BAKOTE, Pakistan, 12 October 2004 – Nazia Bibi, 22, teaches at a girls' primary school in the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. The school is perched high atop a rugged mountain slope, where cultivated fields are as wide as a man is tall.

"Come on, it’s not far now," laughed 19 year-old Falaknaz. We followed her cautiously up the treacherous, muddy path leading to her village, on Pakistan’s North West Frontier province. Behind us, the green mountains of the Afghan border lay shadowed by the burning heat of late afternoon.

Since 1999, four districts in the predominantly rural province of Balochistan in Pakistan have been working to address the education challenges facing children, especially girls. Where no schools existed within walking distance of many villages, 80 have been built.

In a country where 30 million people are considered "ultra poor", Bangladeshi women in particular live on the frontline of hunger.

This quality film illustrates the OPEC Fund's achievements during the past 25 years by showing the impact of its work in needy communities around the globe. Some 22 projects are featured in Albania, Bangladesh, Ghana, Guatamala, Honduras, Mauritania, Senegal, the Sudan, Vietnam and Yemen. The film also visits the Fund's headquarters in Vienna, Austria, where senior officials talk about the origins, philosophy and aims of the Institution.
The film deals with problems and solutions in areas such as education, health care, water supply, agriculture, road construction, energy, environment, HIV/AIDS and emergency aid. But, while highlighting success stories in the fight against poverty, Sowing the Seeds of Hope shows that much remains to be done "to turn the dreams of today into the reality of tomorrow".

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View project from Yemen II

Tran Anh and his family live in Phong Dien District, Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. This 49 year-old man lost one leg because of a shell explosion almost 30 years ago.

VANUATU: A couple of years ago, Australian yachtsman Trevor Naylor was cruising through the southern islands of Malakula, in the area known as the Maskylines, when he noticed two things. Everyone used wooden canoes to travel from one island to the other and there were hardly any trees.

Under the Bali Rehabilitation Fund, an Australian Government initiative to counter the economic and social effects of the 12 October 2002 bombings, thousands of Balinese are developing new skills - or relearning and adapting old ones - to build new and sustainable sources of family income.

Hers is the face of poverty, for poverty leaves its mark. At just 34 years of age, Maria, a mother of nine has suffered more than her share of setbacks.